Kunming facing garbage crisis
Reuters is reporting that Kunming is facing a garbage crunch, with the city's main west and east garbage dumps "fully saturated" and facing closure before the end of this year. It is estimated that Kunming produces 1.3 million tons of trash annually.

Kunming has a plan to bring three new garbage processing facilities similar to the new Wuhuan Incineration Plant online in the coming years. Using a chemical process, the plant is reportedly capable of producing electricity while processing garbage.

Schools, buses on heightened H1N1 alert
Classes at Kunming University of Science and Technology's Oxbridge campus have been temporarily canceled due to a recent outbreak of H1N1 virus (aka swine flu), in which 34 students have been confirmed to be carrying the virus and "around 200 or 300" students have been quarantined on campus. The school is home to 5,000 students.

Concerns of a large-scale H1N1 breakout have also led to Kunming's bus companies increasing hygiene precautions on the city's 3,200 buses. Buses now get a preliminary cleaning after the completion of each route in addition to daily disinfections.

Indian media: It's time to connect with Kunming
Indian newspaper The Times of India is calling on the Indian government to reconsider its decision to not rebuild the Stilwell Road, an old World War II supply route that once connected Kunming with Ledo in northeast India's Assam State via northern Myanmar. According to writer Saibal Dasgupta, India's concerns about China's growing regional influence is feeding into behavior that only amplifies India's increasingly weak regional position:


Marianas Islands courting Kunming tourists
The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), a group of Pacific islands administered by the United States, is hosting Kunming television media this week with the goal of luring increasingly wealthy Kunmingers. A local television crew producing travel shows for Kunming TV will film in Saipan and Tinian, according to a Saipan Tribune report.

Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA) officials have high hopes for the upcoming CNMI travel special, which is expected to be viewed in around one million Kunming households in early December.

"We welcome additional Chinese tourists; their contribution to the NMI economy is significant and necessary," said MVA managing director Perry Tenorio.

Kunming garbage dump image: Reuters

Pu'er tea starting to catch on in the West?
Roughly a year after the bottom dropped out of the out-of-control pu'er tea market, this specialty tea is starting to get more attention overseas, particularly in the West, where Silicon Valley's tea-obsessed techies are tweeting and blogging about its virtues while frighteningly skinny Victoria Beckham is touting its weight-loss properties.

Time has published an article in which it compares the city of Pu'er (previously known as Simao) in Yunnan to other places around the world whose names have become synonymous with foods or beverages such as France's Champagne, Mexico's Tequila and Italy's Parma. The big question is whether Western palates can learn to love pu'er's earthy bouquet – we're not betting on it.

Stone Forest tickets to increase to 260 yuan
It appears all but certain that tickets for Kunming's only UNESCO World Heritage site, the Stone Forest will rise in price from their current 200 yuan to 260 yuan (US$38). In recent hearings held by the Stone Forest Scenic District Management Bureau, 95 percent of representatives were in favor of the 30 percent price hike, according to local media reports.

At 260 yuan per person, Stone Forest tickets would be one of the most expensive tickets among China's World Heritage sites, more than Fujian's Wuyi Mountain (250 yuan), Yellow Mountain in Anhui, Sichuan's Jiuzhaigou (220 yuan) and Zhangjiajie in Hunan (245 yuan).

Kunming bus passengers ask for help with pickpockets
Kunming public bus system is a cheap, convenient way to get around the city, but city buses are also popular places for pickpockets to practice their trade. Kunming bus passengers have suggested to local bus operators that they broadcast short video clips about how to prevent becoming another theft statistic, according to a Kunming Information Hub report.

Passengers also shared their strategies for minimizing the risk of pickpockets, including:

• Keeping an eye on people who move after the bus starts moving
• Moving to less crowded parts of the bus, should they exist
• Staying aware of one's pockets and bag

According to the Kunming Public Security Bureau, pickpockets tend to operate between 9 and 11 am and 5 and 8 pm. Bus routes with the highest rates of pickpocket activity include 107, 26, 61, 90, 118, 2, 10, 161, 31, K1 and 84.

An attempted robbery on a passenger bus traveling from Pu'er to Kunming was repelled by bus passengers resulting in the death of one of the two thieves while the other clings to life in a hospital, according to local media reports.

At 5:53 am on Sunday, the bus was on the Anchu expressway near Lufeng when two men on board the bus suddenly produced knives and attempted to rob the vehicle's passengers.

According to Kunming police, two bus drivers and the passengers engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the men in which the two drivers and two passengers were injured. The injured drivers and passengers have been released from hospitalization.

The two would-be robbers, both men from Guangxi Autonomous Region, were armed with a 20 centimeter knife and a large pair of scissors. Initially one of the men threatened a female passenger with the knife while the other man used the scissors to force the driver to stop the bus.

Two male passengers engaged the man with the knife while the driver and another driver on the bus fought the man with the scissors. After both men had been subdued – during which both of them were seriously injured – the bus drove to Kunming's Nanyao Bus Station, where one of the men was pronounced dead.

The other man is currently in the intensive care unit of a Kunming hospital in critical condition.

The foiled robbery was the second deadly bus incident in southwestern China in a two-day span. On Friday, a bus heading into Chengdu burst into flames, killing 27 passengers and hospitalizing 72. It has not been determined if the fire was accidental or intentional.

Bus drivers in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture returned to work late last week after striking for three days because their employer had attempted to strip them of their property, according to a China Daily report.

Around 500 bus drivers who operated routes connecting Xiaguan with remote counties throughout the prefecture went on strike last Tuesday to protest a document that had been distributed to them by Dali Transport Company (Group), their employer. According to China Daily:


The strike left many residents of and visitors to Dali without bus service, but "no one… overreacted", according to a spokesperson from the Dali government, which negotiated a settlement between the drivers and the company.

The Dali dispute comes one month after bus drivers in Jinghong reacted violently to the local government's decision to break the local monopoly on bus tours in Xishuangbanna, which led to several Chinese travel agencies suspending tour services to the area.

Related article: Xishuanbanna tours suspended due to bus driver attacks

Attacks on non-local tour buses by angry tour bus drivers in Jinghong in southern Yunnan have resulted in some Chinese travel agencies suspending tour services to the popular travel destination, according to Chinese media reports.

Some tour bus drivers have turned violent in response to the government's decision to break the monopoly held by local tour bus operators over Xishuangbanna prefecture. Shanghai Daily reports:



Last Friday local bus drivers reportedly staged a sit-in protest in front of government offices in Jinghong, the prefecture's capital.

Some tour operators in Shanghai such as Spring International Travel service and Jinjiang International Travel have suspended tour group services, while government owned China Youth Travel Service says the attacks were "isolated" and that it will continue to send tourists to Xishuangbanna.

Today at approximately 7:05 am a bus running the number 54 route exploded at the Panjiawan bus stop on Renmin Xi Lu, killing one and injuring ten, according to initial Kunming media reports.

Approximately one hour later at 8:05, another bus exploded at the intersection of Renmin Xi Lu and Changyuan Lu, reportedly killing one passenger and injuring four.

As of 11:30 am, no official announcements regarding the explosions have been made by the Kunming police or municipal government.

According to reports, eyewitnesses at the Panjiawan incident described an extremely loud explosion and all the windows of the bus shattering, covering the street with glass.

A special task force comprised of provincial and municipal officials has been organized and dispatched to the scenes of the explosions and an investigation is underway.

A BBS on local internet portal clzg.cn has posted some photos of scenes from after the Panjiawan explosion.

Update: Reuters is reporting a third explosion in the vicinity of Minshan, and both Reuters and Al-Jazeera seem to be suggesting a possible connection between today's blasts and a violent clash between farmers and police at a rubber plant in southern Yunnan's Menglian (孟连) on Saturday in which two farmers were killed and 54 people – including 41 police – were injured.

Video of the Panjiawan blast's wreckage has been posted by the website ChinaNews.com.

Shanghai Daily is reporting that the Kunming municipal government will hold a press conference about the blasts this afternoon, citing a CCTV report.

Update 2: Chinese news site ccvic.com is reporting a third fatality from the original two blasts. According to the report, the third victim died while on the way to the hospital. The above image comes from the same report.

Update 3: Sources at Kunming Wujiaba International Airport have told GoKunming that at least one flight has been delayed due to weather-related reasons, despite no apparent inclement weather.

Top image: Yunnan.cn